Darryl Kraemer and Kevin Charbonneau, who are the operating shareholders, founded The Opes Group in 2007. Blair Schultz and Mark Kraemer are the other two shareholders in the company.
The management team has a combined experience of 35 years of investment property management. Our management team has a diverse background in finance, investment management, hedge funds, property management, and local government, and has been featured in the Canadian Real Estate Magazine as local experts in the Kitchener-Waterloo market. We’ve built a top team of lawyers, accountant, mortgage brokers, property managers, bankers and real estate agents to provide superior returns on multi-residential investment properties. A property management firm that specializes in the student property market professionally runs all of our properties.
Our management team brings strong covenants to the table, in combination with our skills and experience running a property investment company. We recently sold one of our holdings that nearly doubled our initial investment in 2 yrs.
The Opes Group is a true investment company, as no one in the management team replies upon, nor draws a salary from the company. All profits are re-invested (less dividends on the preferred shares) into the company to pay down debt, or full future growth. There are no employees of the company, as all maintenance and property management is outsourced to contractors.
Darryl Kraemer, MBA
Darryl received his MBA from WLU in 2007, and holds the position of RadIT Solution Manager for Agfa HealthCare Canada, where he’s worked for 10yrs. He is responsible for business development for Canada, and has pitched and won deals that are worth $1-2M all the way up to $65M. He also owns another real estate company with his wife, and has grown it to 6 properties within 2 years.
Dr. Kevin Charbonneau
Kevin received his Doctor of Chiropractic license in 2005, and has been practicing in Kitchener ever since. Kevin owns and runs a thriving practice in Kitchener, which specializes in accident rehabilitation. He has created several solid business relationships with lawyers and doctors throughout the region to ensure his business continues to grow. Kevin also owns another real estate company with his wife, and has grown it to 14 properties within 3 years.
Mark Kraemer
Mark started his first career in Banking with the TD bank in 1974, arriving in Port Elgin as the branch manager in 1983. Mark left the bank in 1986, first to manage Wark Milk Transport and then to start his own real estate development company, followed in 1987, by opening Robert Q’s Travel Mart in Port Elgin. An office in Wiarton followed in 1988, then Kincardine in 1989, and finally in Dec 1989 he launched Grey Bruce Airbus.
First elected as Mayor of the newly amalgamated municipality of Saugeen Shores in Nov 1998, he served three terms retiring in Nov 2006. He was elected Warden of Bruce County twice, serving in that capacity in 2002 and 2005. He has chaired multiple committees at the County level including Museum, Highways, Corporate Services, Agriculture Tourism and Planning and the Grey Bruce Health Unit.
He is the founding and current Chairman of the Board of directors of Westario Power, (2000 to Present) which is the amalgamation of 9 former PUC’s serving over 21,000 customers from Southampton in the North to Palmerston in the South, from Kincardine in the West to Hanover in the East.
In April of 2007 he was elected to the Board of Meridian Credit Union and sat on their credit and Investment review committee, Nominating committee and Board. He chaired the Nominating Committee in 2008. In 2009 he sat on the Governance Committee and Audit Committees.
Blair Schultz
Blair received his Bachelor of Mathematics degree from University of Waterloo in 2000. He is currently Vice President of K2 Investment Management, a hedge fund out of Toronto that manages over $200M of investor funds. Blair has been with the company for 9 years, and oversees all trading done on behalf of the fund members. Blair’s track record is excellent, with his average return to the members consistently over 20% per year.